The Editorial Page: NEET paper leak raises larger questions, calls for honest reckoning 8 TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2026 JOURnaLism of COURage kOlkATA, lATE cITy, 14 pAgES ₹6.00 (₹12 in North East states, ₹20 in Andaman) l www.indianexpress.com DA I ly F r O m : A h m E DA b A D , c h A N D I gA r h , D E l h I , j A I p u r , kO l k ATA , l u c k N O w , m u m b A I , N Ag p u r , pAT N A , p u N E , vA D O DA r A Happening today Second caBInet MeetInG adanIS to Pay $18 Mn to U.S. Sec lthe 3rd IndIa-nordIc Bengal ends religion-based US clean chit for Adani after schemes, scraps OBC list Track This and more on www.indianexpress.com BJP govt announces Rs 3,000 per month, free bus rides for women nation atri Mitra Summit will be held in Oslo. It is set to impart a more strategic dimension to India’s ties with Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Sweden and Norway. Page 5 india and sWeden: delivering groWth, resilienCe and sustainability BY PM NARENDRA MoDI AND SwEDEN PM Ulf KRISTERSSoN ManeSar ProteStS ‘demanding higherwages notanoffence’: courtgrantsbail tounionleader Debt nearly double the ideal, new govt schemes will double the expense Kolkata, May 18 theWestBengalBJPgovernment on Monday held its secondCabinetmeetingunderthe leadershipofChiefMinistersuvendu Adhikari, where it took severalkeydecisionsincluding on a monthly assistance of Rs 3,000 to women under the Annapurna Bhandar scheme and free travel for women in all state-run buses. the Cabinet also decided to discontinueallwelfareschemes basedonreligiousclassification. »contInUed on PaGe 2 atri Mitra Kolkata, May 18 chief minister suvendu adhikari in kolkata, monday. ExprESS Panels to Probe graft, Crimes against Women Page 3 Indiaeyestrade pactwithoman amidturmoil, FtastartsJune1 abhimanyu hazarika Gurgaon, May 18 A GURGAon court on Monday granted bail to a union leader whowasarrestedinconnection with the April 9 la-bour unrest in Manesar, saying he had been kept in “illegal custody” as there was “nothing incriminating” against him. the workers in Manesar in Gurgaon district were protestingforhigherwages.Dayslater, similar demands by factory workers in noida descended into violence and vandalism, leading to a string of arrests by the UP Police. Gurgaon Additional sessions Judge Dr Gagan Geet Kaurpassedtheorderinthebail pleafiledbyAjitsingh,thegeneralsecretaryoftheemployees’ union at Belsonica, an auto parts company in Manesar. “the applicant-accused, who is stated to be a member of the workers’ union, has raised the issue of less salary in a democratic way and nothing incriminating has been shown against him,” the judge said. “Making a demand to raise their wages/ salary by workers/ employeestothegovernmentis not an offence,” said the court. the prosecution had based its case on the gravity of the »contInUed on PaGe 2 As the suvendu Adhikari-led BJP government in West Bengal prepares its first Budget, it could be facing a near doubling of the state’s expenditure on social welfare schemes if it goes through with the party’s prepoll promises. these include increasing the monthly assistance to women under the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme and the unemployment allowance, »contInUed on PaGe 2 business as usual By EP UNNY ravi dutta Mishra New Delhi, May 18 Taking charge in Kerala Leader of opposition in Lok sabha rahul Gandhi congratulates congress leader V d satheesan after he was sworn in as kerala chief minister, in Thiruvananthapuram, monday. Twenty cabinet ministers of the UdF government also took oath. pTI Page 6 AMID the strait of hormuz blockade and uncertainty over peace talks between Iran and the Us, the Commerce and Industry Ministry Monday said the India-oman free trade agreement (FtA) signed in December could enter into force as early as June 1. the likely implementation, within months of signing, comes as Delhi pushes for faster operationalisation of the deal since omani ports, mainly salalah and Duqm, fall outside the strait and could help India reroute exports for West Asia and Africa. Commerce Ministry officialssaidseveralmeetingshave been held with exporters to exploreopportunitiesforpushing food and other low-margin, labour-intensive products, given oman’s geographic advantage during the current crisis. While oman’s annual demand is limited, the pact offers a transit window. officials said that only two UAe ports, Khor »contInUed on PaGe 2 ‘Bail the rule’: SC questions its own order in Umar Khalid case Different benches, different rulings on bail under UAPA ananthakrishnan G New Delhi, May 18 CItInG An earlier judgment that the stringent bail provisionsundertheUnlawfulActivities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) would “melt down” in cases whereprolongedincarceration anddelayedtrial“produceviolation of Article 21”, a two-judge bench of the supreme Court on Mondayexpressed“seriousreservations”aboutthedecisionof and clearing the Dearness Allowance dues. Ifallthreeareimplemented, the expenditure will go up to aboutRs1.29lakhcroreperyear. Asofnow,thestategovernment spends Rs 54,000 crore on Lakshmir Bhandar and unemployment allowance, with the DA dues not paid. the estimated revenue deficit (expenditure comparedtoearnings)thatWest Bengalislookingatin2026-27is Rs 21,759 crore, while its debt apurva Vishwanath New Delhi, May 18 Umarkhalid,sharjeelimamwere deniedbailindelhiriotscase another two-judge bench to deny bail to Umar Khalid and »contInUed on PaGe 2 benches taking distinct perspectives on the fraught question of whether bail restrictions under the stringent Unlawful Activities(Prevention)Act (UAPA)canprevailover constitutional safeguards. E. In GRAntInG bail to a Kashmiri man in an alleged narco-terror case, the supreme Court on Monday underlined a plurality of judicial approaches in the top court, with different Latest casualty of Ukraine-Russia war, Odisha man was helping rebuild home was regularly in touch with the family, but on saturday night, there was no call. thIRtY-YeAR-oLD Anjarana In the intervening night of Ramaya from odisha’s Ganjam saturday and sunday, Ukraine district had been working with unleashed its largest drone a construction company in strike on Russia since the war Moscow for over a between the two page 1 year,sendingmoney countries began in back home to help February 2022. It his family renovate killed four people in and expand their modest Moscow, including an Indian house. he had been back home citizen — Ramaya. While at recently, reaching in time for least22Indiansareestimatedto Maha shivratri celebrations have died since the start of the andstayinguntilMarch22.the war,thisislikelythefirstIndian youngest of four siblings, he casualty in the Moscow region. Bhubaneswar, May 18 anchor anjarana ramaya, 30, was from odisha’s Ganjam district Goes for $275-mn settlement on Iran sanctions shivraj motegaonkar at the rouse avenue court in new delhi on monday. ANI George Mathew Vallabh ozarkar, Mahender Singh Manral & nirbhay thakur Mumbai, May 18 the DonALD trump-led Us administration moved to dismiss criminal fraud charges againstGautamAdanionMonday, while also settling alleged Iran sanctions violations involving his flagship Adani enterprises, according to court records. the Us Department of Justice permanently dropped all criminal charges against Gautam Adani and his nephew sagarAdani,bringinghigh-profile securities and wire fraud case in new York to a complete close after prosecutors concluded they could not sustain the allegations. With this, multiple Us regulatory and legal investigations involving the group have all closedinthelastcoupleofdays. The New York Times had last week reported that Adani’s attorney Robert Giuffra Jr, who is also a personal attorney of Us Gautam adani Mumbai, New Delhi, May 18 President Donald trump, had in a presentation said Adani wanted to invest $10 billion in the United states but could not do so because of the cases. Adani had been accused of agreeing to pay $265 million in bribestoIndiangovernmentofficials so Adani Group could win approval to develop the country’s largest solar power plant. the Adani Group has consistently denied wrongdoing. Adani is the company’s founder and chairman. earlier on Monday, Adani enterprises Ltd entered into an agreement with the Us Departmentoftreasury’sofficeofForeign Assets Control (oFAC) by paying an amount of $275 million to settle its potential civil liability for apparent violations of oFAC sanctions on Iran. »contInUed on PaGe 2 MARKInG Its tenth arrest in the neet-UG paper leak case, the CBI has taken into custody shivraj Motegaonkar, founder of Latur-based RCC Classes, alleging that he received the leaked question papers and answers as early as April 23 — 10 days before the May 3 exam, placing one of Maharashtra’s best-knowncoachingfiguresat the centre of the case. Motegaonkar was arrested on sunday, the same day a CBI team searched the premises of »contInUed on PaGe 2 nation Page 5 nta Chief to aPPear before house Panel Start Your Investment INVESTING KA EASY BUTTON Passive Fund No stock-picking. No guesswork. Just your money, spread across the market automatically. 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